They say that Clark Gable never got over the death of Carole Lombard and I have never gotten over the golden Knick period that began with the drafting of Willis Reed and ended with the wrenching travesty known as the trade, the betrayal, of the greatest Knick of them all, Walt Frazier, to Cleveland. In that time we had our two championships but for those with their ear to the radio voice of Marv Albert, it was a period like none other in our lives. I will in a future post name the names once again but this piece belongs to Jeremy Lin.

Of course I heard of Jeremy Lin just after his first start and his tremendous first game. I read of his 38 points against Kobe Bryant and the Lakers. My son Brendan, a die-hard, was in Lin-topia right from the start. Then I got a message from the good Dr. Ramseur about Lin and the southsider Gary Nelson chimed in. Most surprising of all, Joe Sommers, he of the single-digit handicap, sent Lin-signals from South Carolina.

I had not seen a minute of play as I sensed that the bubble would burst the minute I tuned in and so it came to pass. I watched much of the game against the Heat and it was painful to see Lin stripped so often but more so to see him shoot so many floaters. Floaters are doomed and Clyde never shot one, to my memory.

I had, in that early Knick stretch, as much intense pleasure (and some pain) as any man deserves. I can’t take anymore and I have nothing left to give. I wish you well Jeremy Lin and I leave you in the capable rooting hands of my son Brendan and my grandchildren, Jack and Luke.

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I guess I’ll never be a basketball scout. When Jeremy was with the Warriors, there was nothing at all to suggest he could play like this. I remain a little sour on the NBA after the strike so I’m kind of sitting this year out and enjoying spring training. Great post, Tom.

No! I am not negative on Lin the way I admittedly was about Coughlin. I didn’t like his several floating shots but I really don’t know how they play in the NBA anymore besides the ubiquitous pick and roll.

I wish Lin well but place the responsibility for him squarly on your and Jack and Luke’s shoulders! I did my work back in the day.

As any good doctor would do, I would like to give you two bits of advice to help you recover from the demise of the “golden age” of the Knicks. The first is to not jump off of the Linsanity bandwagon so quickly. It hit a “speed bump” and before you buckled your seatbelt you jumped out. He was going up against the best perimeter defenders in the league who were rested and he had just played the night before.
The second point is to let go of the past Knick debacles….the Frazier trade, Ewing’s missed finger roll against the Pacers, John Starks going 2 for 18 in game seven, etc. Let those go and look to the future, Linsanity.

As a die-hard Knick fan who was “nurtured” on a diet of 78-74 slugfests orchestrated by Mr. Armani and led by the likes of Mace, X, Oak, Harper, Starks, and of course the king of the fadeaway and finger-roll Ewing I’ve got back on the wagon to watch this new collection of Knicks who promise to return the franchise to glory brought by Clyde and Willis. Ultimately it will the “superstars” ‘Melo and Stat who determine how great Jeremy Lin is. Those two need to STEP UP in ways that Ewing and others from those Riley teams never did if the Knicks are going to make MSG rock in June. One thing that’s not palatable this time around are the antics of Spike Lee. Enough already.